Immortal Ki Technique

As the fog continued to roll about, the creature within the shadows moved around freely and unrestricted. Lowen stood by the window stretching his aura sense outward following this odd life forms movements. The creature, whatever it was, would come to a stop for a minute or two near a tombstone before going a few feet over to the next tombstone before once again moving to the next. Lowen grew more and more curious and was ready to jump outside when a shout rang out.

"d.a.m.n it all!"

Following the shout, Lowen could hear a dozen or so footsteps, as well as sense 6 auras rapidly approaching. The creature as well seemed to notice the commotion and with a quick dash, it was gone. Lowen felt the creature moving further and further away and before it completely left his senses, Lowen could tell it was faster than an average man by at least 3 times. Besides that though, Lowen could find nothing more, it seems whatever it was had disappeared, its direction, toward the inner part of town.

The fog as though it was summoned away, soon dissipated and by the time the 6 people arrived it had completely cleared and revealed them. Lowen saw the uniform they wore and could tell right away who they were. With a Rhino with three horns atop its head etched into each one of there leather chest armor, 6 Rhylo soldiers appeared in front of the tombstones. Each one seemed visibly upset. Observing them from the inn, Lowen overheard their conversation.

"s.h.i.t, it happened again. This is the 4th one this week."

Another soldier pointed at a few of the graves.

"Look, that one is empty but this one is only halfway uncovered, the dirt is still mostly here."

The soldier that pointed at the grave walked over and picked up a handful of dirt.

"This dirt is pretty compact and this is one of the freshly dug graves, it looks like another one got in."

The soldier then stood and looked over at the empty grave next to where he stood.

"Men, search the graveyard. If a Nubedo did get in then we need to find it as fast as possible before it consumes anymore of the dead. If you do find it, don"t engage it, simply send a signal or shout. Although Nubedo"s are pa.s.sive by nature, they will attack if they"re provoked or they feel their food source is compromised. Now Go!"

The men gave a rushed salute before they hurriedly sped away in different directions in search of the so-called Nubedo.

Lowen stood by the window in thought.

(Nubedo, didn"t Roland say those creatures are slow.)

Lowen had an extremely good memory and from what Roland had told him, a Nubedo was a death eater, a creature that literally consumes the dead. A big blob-like creature with neither a nose nor eyes or ears, mouths however, it had many. A creature that smelled of rot with the sole purpose of devouring corpses. As a matter of fact, Nubedo"s loved to eat the dead, besides that though, Nubedo"s are a very pa.s.sive creature. Most won"t attack the living whatsoever unless provoked or they feel their food source is being threatened. Whenever a large amount of dead appears, whether it be on a battlefield or there"s some form of a disaster like what happened in Jizhen, Nubedo"s will always some way or another appear just to devour the nonliving. Until this day, no one knows where they come from nor how they come to be, they just exist. The only known monster in existence that doesn"t evolve into a magical beast after consuming a human. Not being an actual threat to the living, the only real reason Nubedo"s are hated and feared is because of what they do, devour. To people, whether they be old or young, to see or know that a family member died is bad enough but to then learn that their final resting place has been disturbed by a monster and that said family member was then eaten, it is something no one can sit with or stomach. So Nubedo"s are often hunted and destroyed as fast as possible, so families don"t have to suffer further.

(Hmm, from what I know, Nubedo"s are mostly large lumbering slow creatures but that odd creature from before moved pretty fast. That wasn"t a Nubedo, was it?)

Without actually seeing the creature, Lowen had no real way of knowing but he was almost 100% sure with that speed it had to be something else but what?

Lowen"s curiosity grew.

(Should I go take a look?)

Lowen opened his window and was about to head out when he felt 2 auras approaching his door, just before the outsiders knocked, Lowen"s voice came from inside the room.

"Nia, Ben, come in."

Both Nia and Ben looked at each other but neither one of them expressed shock. They mostly had gotten used to Lowen doing such things and only looked at one another to see the same knowing look to confirm that they weren"t the weird ones but instead, Lowen was or rather he was mysterious.

Stepping in, Nia and Ben both held pillows in their hands. They were about to say something when Lowen spoke first.

"Couldn"t sleep."

The two both nodded their heads simultaneously.

"Well, I guess the two of you can join me if you really want to."

Ben was the first to grow excited his head lifted and a huge smile stretched across his face. Ben ran at the bed and dove under the cover so fast that it looked as though he were always there. Nia however still stood there with her head slightly down. Ever since Benjamin had made comments about her still being immature and small, Nia was actively trying to be more mature. So when Ben had asked her while nearly crying about not being able to sleep with Lowen and demanded to go over to his room, Nia at first wanted to resist it but she to felt odd not being by his side now. Thus the inner struggle inside her head went as follows.

(If I keep sleeping with Lowen and Ben, then daddy will always see me as a child and treat me as such but I just can"t get comfortable if I"m by my self, what do I do?)

"Nia."

Lowen"s voice brought Nia back to reality. As their eyes made contact, Nia"s face for some reason suddenly became red, so she had to quickly look away. Lowen found this a little odd but seeing her go red he felt like teasing her.

"Nia, were you afraid of the dark? Is that why you came to sleep with me? I get it I get it, I"ll sleep on the outside, that way I"ll be closest to the door, that way if a monster comes in he"ll have to deal with me. You just stay tucked in, don"t worry I"ll protect little Nia."

Hearing Lowen"s words, Nia"s red face of shyness, like a coin, flipped from shyness to anger instantly. All Nia could hear in her head now, was Lowen saying, baby this and baby that, blah, blah, blah, Nia you"re immature. Nia took her pillow and launched it at Lowen"s face. Since it was a pillow, Lowen simply took it and began to laugh. Ben as well got in on it and launched his pillow at Nia. Nia was already upset and angry with Lowen so her guard was down and the pillow smacked her square in the face. Nia turned to look at Ben, her eyes staring at him like a venomous snake, however, all she got back from Ben was a face full of joy and giddiness. With little Ben"s face, Nia"s angry emotions vanished completely and she too smiled back albeit devilishly. Picking up her brothers pillow, Nia added her snake fist and some ki to the pillow, causing it to accelerate as fast as an arrow at Ben. Ben though was already one step ahead, with ki loaded into his legs and feet, he executed his shadow steps and the pillow that was about to hit him was caught and with a flick of the rest was tossed at an incredible speed towards Lowen. Lowen saw this and smiled before taking the cover off the bed and throwing it into the air. With the cover being as large as it was, it filled Nia and Ben"s vision. When it finally hit the ground, Lowen"s figure had disappeared and reappeared at the door behind Nia. In his hand, he held all three pillows. Lowen swung and threw the pillows with power.

*Whack Whack*

And so it went, a pillow fight with powerful moves and quick dodge=ing speed. In this tiny room, bodies flashed and blurred, by the time all was said and done, all the feathers inside the pillows were scattered about over the entire room and the three were on the floor laughing and having a good time until finally, they all fell asleep next to one another, a smile on their faces.

----------------------------------

With the morning sun came the hunt for breakfast. After everyone cleaned up, the group left the inn, of course, Lowen had to pay a few coins more to get an added stay as well as pay for the damage to the room. When the lady came to the room to clean up the mess left behind by Lowen, Nia, and Ben, she could only look on with confusion.

(How did three kids do all of this?)

After grabbing a quick meal everyone"s mood was lifted and with the few hundred gold coins Lowen had taken from Rize, Lowen decided that today he would buy Nia and Ben a few things. Once more the group made their way to the town square. It didn"t take long for Ben to find what he wanted though. As the group went by a vendor, Ben"s eyes went wide when he saw it. On the ground, an older woman had a thin cloth blanket laid out, on top of it were many odd goods but what had caught Ben"s attention was a book. Not the words on the cover, those he couldn"t read, instead, it was the picture on the cover itself. It looked to be some type of sweet dessert with a chocolate sauce drizzled over it. Ben pointed at the book while jumping up and down.

"Big bro big bro, what"s that?"

Lowen looked at the cover and read it aloud.

"1000 recipes of desserts and snacks for the ultimate foodie."

Ben"s eyes grew wide and his voice became urgent.

"Big bro big bro that, I want that, please, please, please."

"Alright, wait a second."

Lowen looked at the older lady and asked.

"May I?"

The older woman gave a nod.

"Sure but if you damage it then you"re buying it. You got that young man?"

Lowen gave a small nod.

Picking the book up Lowen flipped through a few pages. As he did, even his mouth began to water. Ben began pulling on his arm.

"Big bro, what"s it say, what"s it say?"

"It tells you how to make a bunch of delicious snacks and sweet desserts."

Ben"s again grew impatient.

"Big bro, you"ll teach them to me, right? You"re the only one I know who can read, so you gotta teach me, you just gotta."

Lowen smiled at little Ben and gave a small nod. The old lady couldn"t understand why the young boy was so excited over a book he couldn"t even read but after Lowen handed her a few coins the lady no longer cared. As they walked away, Lowen handed the book to Ben and told him.

"That book is the only one we found about making food so make sure you take care of it, I don"t know if we can find another one here."

Ben"s head rapidly nodded back and forth at great speed scaring a few pa.s.sersby but Lowen"s group only found it cute and laughed.

As the group made their way through the crowded town square, Lowen suddenly felt something.

(Hmm, that aura, it"s back.)

Lowen"s neck cranked to one side and as he looked toward his right up ahead, he could see a cloaked figure 100 feet away. Lowen"s curiosity grew and without turning back to his group he said.

"Everyone, I"ll meet up with you later, don"t follow me."

Lowen ran ahead and Nia and the rest stared at him in confusion before they could say anything he had already disappeared into the crowd.

As Lowen caught up to that figure, as though it sensed his presence, it suddenly bolted and began knocking people down trying to run forward. People started yelling in anger but this hooded figure didn"t care and just kept running. Once more Lowen"s curiosity peaked and he increased his speed. This hooded figure was fast but compared to Lowen the figure seemed to not be moving at all. As Lowen gained on this person he saw that a small child not paying attention had wondered in front of this person"s path. Lowen, not wanting to see this kid get run over again increased his speed and instantly appeared behind this person and grabbed them by the back of their clothes. The figure was stopped just in time and the child looked up catching a glimpse of the figures face.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MOMMY SAVE ME!"

This sudden scream caught the attention of everyone nearby and the hooded figure became panicked and began to struggle. With this struggle and Lowen"s powerful grip, the hood was ripped apart and the figure was finally revealed. Lowen couldn"t see the persons face but the back of the head seemed to belong to an elderly person, with so many wrinkles of skin this was Lowen"s first thought. The ears as well seemed odd, they were pointed at the top but before Lowen could completely lose himself in thought. The surrounding people that saw this figure"s face, erupted in a loud commotion and as screams and panic began to unfold, a person in the crowd yelled out.

"ITS...ITS... A... A...A GHOUL... RUN!!"